Norma Field walks under power lines coming off of the nuclear plant on Three Mile Island (TMI), with the operational plant run by Exelon Generation, in Middletown, Pennsylvania.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds | AFP | Getty Images
Constellation Energy plans to restart the Three Mile Island nuclear plant and will sell the power to Microsoft, demonstrating the immense power needs of the tech sector as they build out data centers to support artificial intelligence.
Constellation expects the Unit 1 reactor at Three Mile Island to come back online in 2028, subject to approval by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the company announced Friday.
Unit 1 ceased operations in 2019 because it could not compete economically with cheap natural gas and renewables. It is separate from the reactor that partially melted down in 1979 in the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history.
Microsoft will purchase electricity from the plant to match the energy its data centers consume with carbon-free power. Constellation described the agreement with Microsoft as the largest power purchase agreement that the nuclear plant operator has ever signed.
Constellation stock jumped nearly 7% in early trading.
Electricity demand from data centers is expected to surge in the coming decades as the tech sector ramps up artificial intelligence, threatening to strain the electric grid. Tech companies are hunting for nuclear power to meet that growing electricity demand while adhering to their climate goals.
Constellation’s announcement comes months after Amazon Web Services bought a data center campus from Talen Energy Corporation that will be powered by the Susquehanna nuclear plant, also in Pennsylvania, in a first-of-its-kind deal.
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